These Arizonans are feeling the squeeze as ACA subsidies disappear

When Eric Kurland logged onto the Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplace on Nov. 1, 2025 to enter his information for open enrollment, he knew it was going to be bad—but once he saw the estimated premium as over $2,200 a month, he felt like he was going into a cold sweat.

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) tax credits that make health care affordable for over 20 million Americans and over 100,000 Arizonans, expired on Jan. 1, 2026.

The tax credits help people afford the individual or family health insurance plans offered in their state through the ACA marketplace, originally created by former President Obama to lower the cost of health care for Americans. 

Kurland and his wife are Scottsdale residents, both teachers retired from Scottsdale Unified School District. They have been enrolled in the ACA marketplace for two years, the first year costing them $327 a month in 2024, and $513 a month in 2025. 

Even with the subsidized health insurance, they still faced a huge deductible of over $10,000 a year, and paid nearly everything out of pocket until the deductible was reached. 

“We, of course, could have just rolled the dice and gone without [health insurance]…So I, like many others, thought about, should we just kind of take a chance and not do health insurance,” Kurland said. 

Kurland described he and his wife as healthy, active people—but they ultimately decided against going uninsured. Both are too young for Medicare at 62 and 64, so they enrolled in Arizona State Retirement System (ASRS) health care.

Now, they pay $1,130 per month for health insurance through ASRS—double of what they previously paid before ACA subsidies expired. 

READ MORE: ‘Stop playing games with our lives’: Arizonans urge lawmakers to protect ACA subsidies

But, it’s still less than they would have paid for ACA marketplace health insurance without subsidies, which would have been equivalent to a second mortgage.

“You work all your life to have a comfortable retirement,” Kurland said. “[We’re] two teachers, we live frugally…We actually worked two jobs for probably our first 10 years of teaching, we each waited tables and yeah, it’s kind of a kick in the groin.”

Fortunately, Kurland and his wife both have paid off cars and no debt other than an outstanding mortgage. “We’re much more fortunate than other people,” he said. 

Not all are fortunate

Rebecca Bailey is a part-time English-second-language teacher at Rio Salado Community College, while she is finishing an online master’s degree.

As a part-time employee, she gets no insurance benefits, so instead she has been enrolled in the ACA marketplace for health insurance. 

“I am lucky because I am healthy right now, I am 57 so I know that that will not stay that way, but, I’m getting older, so my healthcare is going to become a bigger and bigger problem,” Bailey said. 

Rebecca Bailey (right) saw her monthly health insurance bill nearly double after ACA marketplace tax credits expired on Jan. 1, 2026. (Photo courtesy of Rebecca Bailey).

Bailey was enrolled in one of the lowest tiers of coverage at $60 at the beginning of 2025, which doesn’t get her dental or vision coverage.  

By mid-December 2025, Bailey was notified her insurance would be going up to over $200 a month come the new year, and for her situation, she simply couldn’t afford it. 

“It can keep me awake at night, it is scary,” Bailey said. 

Ultimately, Bailey received assistance from a local nonprofit, Helping Families In Need, and enrolled in ACA health coverage for just over $100 a month, which still stretches her budget, and has added costs for prescriptions, medical tests, and doctor visits.  

“I’m just praying that I don’t get terribly sick this year,” she said. “I am in general healthy so we might just not be going to the doctor and getting things done this year.”

Before she was enrolled in the ACA marketplace, Bailey was covered by her husband’s workplace health insurance, who was a state employee. For 25 years, Bailey was a stay-at-home-mom taking care of two daughters and a severely disabled son.

Three years ago, their son passed away, and her husband flipped a switch—kicking Bailey out and changing the locks on their home. Now, the two are divorced, but Bailey is still working through divorce settlements and paying lawyers, which is draining her income. 

‘Right now I’m broke, to be honest with you, I’m broke, I’m still paying for lawyers, my [ex-husband] is just arguing over every little thing,” Bailey said. 

What are lawmakers doing?

In December, the US Senate rejected a three-year extension of ACA subsidies backed by Democrats. 

On Jan. 8, the US House passed Democratic-proposed legislation that would immediately reinstate the subsidies and extend them through 2028, with 17 Republicans voting alongside Democrats in support of the bill. While the bill is almost certain to fail in the Republican-controlled US Senate, conversations remain ongoing. 

An estimated 125,000 to 150,000 more Arizonans will be without health insurance this year if the ACA’s enhanced tax credits aren’t renewed.

Despite the potentially devastating consequences of the loss of the subsidies, all of Arizona’s Republican members of Congress voted against reviving them. 

Bailey, a Phoenix resident, lives in Republican Rep. David Schweickert’s Congressional District. She has been leaving voicemails at his office for months, where she’s been hung up on and dismissed.   

“Every other industrialized country in the world can figure this shit out, and yet this group in Washington DC, just can’t,” Kurland said.